Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Punahou offramp topic of meeting
The Punahou off-ramp from H-1 Freeway, dubbed the most heavily used H-1 offramp, will be the topic of a community briefing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Central Union Church Youth Center.State Department of Transportation representatives will discuss plans to start construction on the Punahou off-ramp expansion in March. It's anticipated to take nine months to complete.
Other H-1 corridor construction projects also will be discussed. State Sen. Carol Fukunaga and Rep. Brian Schatz are briefing co-sponsors. For more information, call 586-6890.
Chief justice names new district judge
Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon has appointed Trudy K. Senda a District Court judge on Kauai, subject to confirmation by the state Senate.Senda has been an associate with the law office of Randal Valenciano since 1996. Since 1983, Senda has been employed in private practice at various law firms on Kauai and Oahu, including law offices of Wayne Parsons and Ashford and Wriston.
She earned her law degree from the University of Hawaii.
Senda is in line to fill the judgeship left vacant by Clifford L. Nakea, named to a Circuit Court judgeship in September 2000.
New officers elected to center association
John Landgraf, with First Hawaiian Bank's Commercial Real Estate Division, has been re-elected to a second term as president of the board of directors of The Friends of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.Also elected were Lila Johnson of the state Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Education Branch, vice president; James Wriston, of Ashford & Wriston Attorneys At Law, secretary; and Larry Rodriguez, of Ernst & Young LLP, treasurer.
Directors are: John Aube, Charles Bocken, Gladys Brandt, Stephen G. Chong, Vi Dolman, Frank Haines, Dr. Scott Hundal, P. Nathan Minn, Elizabeth E. Olsen, Ann B. Simpson, H. Howard Stephenson, Joseph M. Toy, Donna St. John Wiecking and Glenn Zander.
Dr. Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, is an ex-officio member.
Whale injures woman on boat
PORT ALLEN, Kauai -- A woman tourist was treated for chest pains and an injured knee Tuesday after a baby humpback whale leaped over the railing of a whale watching boat, hit her and slipped back into the water.The whale swam away, apparently uninjured. The woman was treated and released at a hospital.
"It just came out of the blue," said Doug Phillips, co-owner of Na Pali Eco Adventures, which operates the 40-foot catamaran Hokua. Phillips said the boat, which was carrying about 35 passengers, was stopped and there were no whales in sight when the juvenile humpback suddenly breached and landed on the the stern of boat.
"The engines were running and normally whales will keep their distance when they hear the engine," Phillips said. "But juvenile whales are pretty high strung and they don't know much yet."
It is rare for a whale to hit a boat, let alone jump up on it. Phillips said the only other incident he is aware of was about a decade ago when a whale breached onto a small sailboat off Maui. A man was killed, he said.
'Dying Well' author to speak on end-of-life issues
Dr. Ira Byock, author of "Dying Well: The Prospect of Growth at the End of Life," will give a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in the Hibiscus II Room, Ala Moana Hotel.Byock, a physician, directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's national grant program, "Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care."
Hospice Hawaii and the Queen's Medical Center are sponsoring his talk, which will address personal, family and medical issues concerning death and dying.
"People are beginning to think about death and dying in a new way," said Steve Kula, Hospice Hawaii president. "Dr. Byock's presentation will help continue conversations about these issues in Honolulu at the dinner table, in school, in houses of worship, in libraries, in doctors' offices and at work."
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program that Byock directs funds such organizations as Kokua Mau, a community-state partnership working to improve end-of-life care in Hawaii.
Byock, director of the Palliative Care Service in Missoula, Mont., received the National Hospice Organization's Person of the Year award.
Tomorrow
Some events of interest
1 p.m., Kalanimoku Building Board Conference Room, 1151 Punchbowl St.: Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission meeting. Info: 243-5020.
7 p.m., East-West Center: Honolulu Community-Media Council 2001 Freedom of Information Day Conference. Featured speaker: James Fallows. Info: 222-3035.
7 p.m., Spalding Auditorium, University of Hawaii: ADBwatch-Hawaii presents "No Aloha for the Asian Development Bank." Featured speakers: Bruce Rich and William Aila. Info: 955-6161.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffHonolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
Man hit, killed crossing Kamehameha Highway
A man in his 50s was killed when he was struck by a car while walking across Kamehameha Highway near Pupukea Road last night. Police say the man was not in a crosswalk.The driver of the two-door compact car in the 9 p.m. accident was a 30-year-old Sunset Beach woman.
The man was taken to Kahuku Hospital in critical condition, where he later died. He was the fifth traffic fatality this year compared to nine last year.
Man, 31, arrested in knife-threat of wife
A 31-year-old Village Park man was arrested after he forced his wife, 29, into their bedroom and threatened her with two kitchen knives on Valentine's Day, police said.The man accused his wife of having an affair, police said. The woman was allegedly kept hostage at their home at 94-506 Kupuohi St. between 6 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. last night until she was able to escape to a neighbor's home and call for help.
Two boys, 13, arrested in school robbery of boy
Police arrested two 13-year-old boys who allegedly robbed another boy, also 13, of $206 at Waimanalo Intermediate School at about 11 a.m. yesterday. The victim was going to use the money to buy school carnival tickets, police said.One suspect invited the boy to lunch, while the other came up from the side, punched the boy and demanded his money, police said.
Man hunted after trying to use stolen bank card
CrimeStoppers is asking for help in identifying a man who attempted to use a stolen bank card at an automatic teller machine at the Ewa Branch of Bank of Hawaii at 5 a.m. on Dec. 28.The suspect was photographed by a security camera. He is suspected in several thefts from cars in the Iroquois Point Naval Housing area during the last couple of months.
Police describe the suspect as a male in his early 30s, medium height and build with dark hair. He also has a mustache and a goatee. He was wearing a baseball cap and was riding a bicycle.
Big Isle police probe fishing pole, reel theft
Big Island police want information about the theft of two custom deep-sea fishing poles and two Penn reels worth $2,000.Police said the items were stolen from a Kawaihae Road home between Feb. 2 and 4.
The stolen items included 7-foot fishing rods custom made by Hobbietat in Honolulu, white with blue and red stripes with heavy butts to attach them to a fighting chair. The reels were described as black Penn 14-0 Senators.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the South Kohala Patrol, 887-3080, or Crime Stoppers, 961-8300.
Man who set wife afire sentenced to life
LIHUE -- Gregory Aguiar, who pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for setting his wife on fire 11 months ago, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole today.Kauai Circuit Court Judge Clifford Nakea said it was the only possible sentence he could impose. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek an enhanced sentence for the crime and to drop a reckless endangerment charge involving the couple's 3-year-old granddaughter, who witnessed the incident .
Aguiar, 51, poured gasoline on his wife, Miu Lan Esposo-Aguiar, 39, and set her on fire during an argument at their Eleele home on March 12. She died March 31.
Esposo-Aguiar, office manager of a medical equipment rental company, told fire fighters that she and her husband had been fighting about the amount of time she had been spending at work on Oahu.
"I've never seen a more cruel way for a person to take another's life," Prosecutor Michael Soong told Nakea.
Maui police arrest Lahaina Harbor agent
LAHAINA -- A Lahaina Harbor agent was put on administrative leave yesterday, after his arrest Tuesday.The agent, 47, who has worked for the department for more than 15 years, was not charged with a crime and was released pending further investigation. State officials executed a search warrant of the harbor office Tuesday, based on a first-degree theft allegation involving more than $20,000, said Maui police Lt. Lenie Lawrence.
Land board chairman Gilbert Coloma-Agaran said the investigation is reviewing an allegation that a number of boats were moored without authorization in Lahaina Harbor. He said an aspect of the investigation involves whether the mooring fees were diverted or never collected.
Kauai barber charged with tax violations
The State Tax Department has charged a Kauai barber with misdemeanor tax violations.Harry Ikeda is accused of willful failure to secure a general excise tax license and failure to file his general excise tax returns for 1998 and 1999, tax director Marie Okamura said yesterday.
The offenses are punishable by not more than $25,000 in fines or one year imprisonment, or both. Ikeda will be arraigned March 6 in District Court in Lihue.
